Chemical and biological compounds have a variety of uses in the world today. Many of these chemical and biological compounds can have harmful effects on people who are exposed to them. Moreover, currently a number of hazardous compounds are produced especially for their harmful effects. For example, nerve agents, mustard agents, hydrogen cyanide, tear gases, arsines, and toxins have all been used to produce chemical weapons with varying degrees of detrimental effects. Needless to say, these chemical warfare agents can be extremely dangerous.
Special equipment and procedures are often needed by personnel to avoid injury in areas contaminated by chemical accidents or by chemical warfare agents. These personnel can include, for example, HAZ-MAT workers, soldiers, firefighters, and others that may come into contact with hazardous compounds. For safety reasons, training personnel to deal with exposure to these compounds is preferably not conducted with actual hazardous compounds. Therefore, there is a need for hazardous chemical simulants that can safely be used for training personnel. These hazardous chemical simulants should preferably be capable of mimicking physical characteristics of hazardous compounds, but are non hazardous themselves. The compounds should also be easily detectable, so that the effectiveness of decontamination procedures can be determined.
One problem with hazardous compounds is that they can not always be easily seen. These compounds may be colorless, or harmful in minute concentrations that can not easily be detected by the human eye. Personnel who may be exposed to these compounds must, therefore, be trained to avoid a hazard that they can not always see. Therefore, a hazardous chemical simulant which can not be easily seen during training exercises, and yet can be detected even in minute concentrations when desired, is needed for training personnel and to help judge the effectiveness of protective clothing and procedures.
For example, special equipment such as protective clothing can help personnel avoid exposure to even minute concentration of hazardous compounds. The outside of protective clothing can become contaminated when personnel work in a contaminated area. When removing or handling this clothing, personnel must learn to remove and handle this equipment without contaminating themselves. A hazardous chemical simulant could be used to safely teach personnel to deal with hazardous chemicals, without the dangers associated with the actual hazardous chemicals.
Visually detectable chemical agents are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,670,469 discloses compositions that contain coloring agents that are visually detectable under normal lighting conditions. The compositions can be applied to surfaces and then wiped off. The detecting agent allows one to determine which surfaces have been wiped off and, therefore, which surfaces have been cleaned or decontaminated. However, there is no description of hazardous chemical simulants that can be used to mimic hazardous chemical compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,881 discloses a device for assessing the level of protection provided by protective clothing. The device comprises a reaction pad that attaches to protective clothing. The pad gives a visual indication when exposed to a specific chemical reagent. Although the device provides a method of detecting the presence of specific chemicals reagents, there is no description of any hazardous chemical simulants that can be used to mimic hazardous chemical compounds during training exercises.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,465 discusses contaminant locating and identifying compositions that can contain fluorescent dyes. The contaminant locating composition is repelled by oily contaminants and serves to outline the contaminated area. The composition detecting composition can then be applied to the oil based contaminant to mark the contaminant with a fluorescent dye. The location of the oily contaminant can then be identified under an ultraviolet light.
The prior art has failed to provide a hazardous chemical simulant that can both simulate the physical properties of hazardous chemical compositions and can be easily located when desired. Such a hazardous chemical simulant would be an invaluable tool in training personnel to handle hazardous chemical contamination.